After the Union Navy was repulsed by General Bowen at Grand Gulf, Grant's army was forced to land in Louisiana and march downriver. In the largest amphibious landing prior to World War II, the Union Army crossed the river and landed without opposition at Bruinsburg. Part of the Thirteenth Corps under General Osterhaus turned north following the road past Windsor, while the larger force under General McClernand turned south to Bethel Church and then east on the Old Rodney Road. With few horses available, they were used to pull artillery, leaving most of the troops on foot. Advance troops reached Shaifer place at 1:30 a.m., May 1, 1863, and for the first time came in contact with Confederate outposts. Although shots were fired, both armies bedded down, and actual fighting did not resume until after daybreak. The battle then extended from the Shaifer house north to the Sillers or Andrews house, with the Union army fighting much of the time in the ravines while the Confederates held the ridges along a wide battleline. The Confederate troops withdrew, and the Union army advanced northwestward through this intersection into Port Gibson.
